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There's a very sophisticated network of hate in US: Murphy

US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) (R) talks to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) (L) prior to a news conference June 5, 2019 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has called President Donald Trump the “primary cheerleader” for hate in the United States, as Trump faces widespread criticism over his controversial immigration rhetoric after a pair of deadly shootings over the weekend.

“There is a very sophisticated network of hate in this country that started, you know, well before President Trump took office,” Murphy told MSNBC On Wednesday. “But he was their cheerleader, and he is now their primary cheerleader, so he is making it worse, not better.”

Senator Murphy’s comments come after last weekend's mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, which left more than 30 people dead.

El Paso police said the 21-year-old suspect published a "manifesto" before his shooting that had anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric. Saturday’s massacre was one of three mass shootings in the United States within a span of a week, unleashing fresh alarm at the national crisis of gun violence.

The gunman, who was arrested, is white and linked to a "manifesto" posted online that described an attack in response to a “Hispanic invasion.”

On Sunday, a 24-year-old gunman killed nine people in a rampage in Dayton, Ohio. That shooting came seven days after a teenager killed three people with an assault rifle at a food festival in California before taking his own life.

While President Trump on Monday called on the country to "condemn bigotry, hatred and white supremacy" after the shooting, his critics have said his rhetoric has contributed to the rise in hate crimes.  Trump declared that “hate has no place in our country.”

Murphy said on Wednesday that “Congress also contributes to the violence,” citing its in recent days and the failure to pass major gun reforms after previous mass shootings.

“When these young men are contemplating exorcising their demons, their disdain for people that are different from them, through a weapon, through the muzzle of a rifle, they notice when Congress doesn't step in and condemn these actions with legislation,” Murphy said.

“And so our silence has become a quiet endorsement for these unhinged individuals who are trading in this hate speech who end up turning guns on individuals,” the Democratic lawmaker added.

In an interview with Press TV on Tuesday, American political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch said that white supremacy is not a partisan issue, both Democratic and Republican Parties fund endless racist war. 

“The Democrats and the so-called left, the other ruling party is using this as a political football, and it’s a problem of course because Trump is a racist, of course his rhetoric is incendiary and it’s riling up these feelings among his base and it’s a nasty ugly thing. But it’s not necessary in opposing Trump to jump on board with this group of opportunists and charlatans who exemplify absolutely every single aspect of white supremacy, to achieve every single one—except the fact that they themselves are not burning crosses, they themselves are not taking an AR15 and going to a mall and shooting people,” Welch noted.


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